


Something Better

by MsMaarvel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, they watch movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 18:18:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8337880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsMaarvel/pseuds/MsMaarvel
Summary: Lance raises his hand, more out of reflex than any real need to do so before speaking. “What kind of data are you talking about here? Like information on our families?”He wasn’t sure how much time had passed back on Earth, but he was anxious nonetheless to make sure his family is alright.“Nearly any sort. I’m sure if we ask the right questions we can find out whatever you need to about your families.” Allura is sympathetic of course, she’d lost her entire planet, but she had something else entirely in mind when setting up this meeting. “However, I was thinking more along the lines of media content. Movies, shows, music. You have those technologies on Earth, right?”





	

It probably says something about Lance’s well-being that he has been bouncing a ball off a corridor wall for the last forty five minutes straight, but it’s not something he’s willing to come to terms with quite yet when Allura’s voice appears on the intercom asking the paladins to meet her in the control room. Tossing the ball into his room, he makes his way easily being able to navigate the castle after spending so much time on it with near-nonstop free time.

He runs into Pidge on the way, greeting her possibly a little too enthusiastically. She’d been holed up in her room for the past few days, only coming out to retrieve food goo from the kitchen, so he hadn’t seen her much at all.

Lance isn’t sure what she’s working on, but it must be important. “What do you think this is?” he asks, gesturing toward their gathering place.

Pidge gives Lance a look that lets him know she’s in-the-know about this particular mission. Cocking her head to the side, she says, “The good shit.”

“Care to elaborate?” Lance asks as they enter the control room.

“Hear it for yourself.” Pidge gives a small laugh, miming zipping her lips closed.

* * *

 

This mission’s news is the biggest boost to Lance’s mood since the entire Voltron debacle started. It’s not that the team isn’t fun to be around for the most part, it’s just that while not in action all there is to do is sit around the castle. There isn’t much left unexplored, and without anything to do, Lance gets antsy.

Hearing that Allura had gathered them for something that isn’t life-or-death is Lance’s first indication that today would be good.

“Essentially, this tech-based civilization- yes, you know already, Pidge.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Pidge added helpfully, unable to hide the sparkle in her eye at the mention of such a civilization.

Allura continues with a smile, glad to see one of her paladins happy. “The Scimasses, they have been collecting data and information on other planets for a long while and in the past hundred years or so they’ve been able to branch out of their own system and into the broader universe. Since there’s no imminent threat, I figured we could stop by and see if there’s any Earth data you might want to retrieve.”

Lance raises his hand, more out of reflex than any real need to do so before speaking. “What kind of data are you talking about here? Like information on our families?”

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed back on Earth, but he was anxious nonetheless to make sure his family is alright.

“Nearly any sort. I’m sure if we ask the right questions we can find out whatever you need to about your families.” Allura is sympathetic of course, she’d lost her entire planet, but she had something else entirely in mind when setting up this meeting. “However, I was thinking more along the lines of media content. Movies, shows, music. You have those technologies on Earth, right?”

“Of course we do!” Hunk responds enthusiastically. “My movie taste is legendary.”

“Grease does not count as legendary Hunk, you and I know that, the universe knows that.”

“First of all your grudge against good musicals is completely unfounded and secondly-”

“Paladins!” Shiro interrupts the arguing with his commanding tone. Softening it, he continues, “Besides, we all the know the best movie is Revenge of the Sith becau-”

Lance’s eyes widen as Shiro speaks until he can’t take it anymore and interrupts him. “No! I _cannot_ believe I let you be my hero ever in my life that is the most blasphemous thing I’ve ever heard just stop right there Shiro, please. Save me the suffering.”

Taking a look over at Keith, Lance finds that his expression hasn’t changed whatsoever. How couldn’t he see the complete foolishness Shiro was spewing? Has he no soul or movie taste? When he notices Lance’s staring, Keith’s expression darkens. It’s not exactly what Lance was looking for, but that’s his queue to look away. For now.

“Shiro, I thought Matt and Dad would’ve taught you better.” Pidge scolded. “Besides, The Force Awakens is obviously the best of them all. So far.”

Allura claps her hands together to gather everyone’s attention again, focusing them to the task at hand.

“This should be a cause for celebration, paladins. You’ll be able to get the media you each enjoy, you don’t need to bicker.”

“In any case, none of you have even seen my favorite movie, An Evening Out with Zyterria. It’s the best Altean comedy, I do hope they have a copy.” She wasn’t holding her breath, it’s unlikely the Scimasses had any Altean content, the planet had been destroyed far too long ago.

She shook the negativity for the sake of her paladins. They’d been essential in the fight against the Galra Empire, and they deserved more than an empty castle with nothing but battle training to offer them.

The second indication that today would be good came when Lance was asked by Shiro to team up with Keith. “I don’t know how far we may have to separate from each other, but in the event that we do, I’d like us to be in pairs. I’ll go with Pidge, Hunk you can go with Allura. Lance and Keith, you two can stay together. Coran told me he’s staying aboard to monitor potential threats in case we need to come back quickly, but I do have a list of what he’d like if they have Altean content.”

Lance was about to protest his assigned partnership to keep up images sake, but looking at Keith he realized this would be an ideal time to share his favorite things with his teammate. “Got it.” He chimed in with the rest of the group.

* * *

Once they touch down on the planet they are greeted by a small number of the Scimasses, tall willowy bald humanoids with pale glowing skin and numerous watches adorning their long arms. Each watch seemed to have a different purpose, lighting up and projecting different panels that the Scimasses ignored for the time being as they greet the paladins of Voltron.

The introductions were quick, and they lead the paladins inside.

One Scimasse accompanied each pair of the Voltron crew, and they each started in a different room. His and Keith’s guide had introduced themself as Vyrii. “We have things separated by genre. You can search the genre you’d like and the planet of origin, in your case Earth, yes?” Vyrii inquires.

“Yes.” Keith confirms. “Where do you want to start?” he defers to Lance’s judgement, not sure exactly what he wanted to pick up himself just yet.

“Let’s start with music.” Lance decided, taking out the alien equivalent of a USB flashdrive. “Lead the way, Vyrii.”

Vyrii obliged, taking them to the room Hunk and Allura were currently perusing.

“If I see you take one look at the High School Musical soundtracks you’re never allowed to talk shit about my musical taste ever again.” Hunk threatened good-naturedly when he saw Lance enter the room. He liked those goofy movies too, he was just sore about Lance ragging on his other musical preferences.

“HSM is a classic, I’ll have you know. You know every word too, so shut up dude.”

Keith snickers and Lance doesn’t miss it.

“Got something to say, _Keith_?” he demands, putting his hands on his hips in an exaggeratedly dramatic move.

Keith responds with a quick “No” but Lance saw the smile on his face.

“Anyway,” he gave up heckling the red pilot, turning to one of the computer databases, “I have some work to do.”

He pointedly searches the musical genre and downloads all three HSM soundtracks before teasing Hunk with an “oops.”

* * *

 

Two hours and tons of movies, shows, and songs later, Lance still has no idea what Keith even likes. The black-haired boy had been quick and private about his media choices, despite Lance announcing his choices every so often, trying to initiate conversations.

He’d even left with a few of Vyrii’s suggestions on alien media based on his Earth preferences. But as far as Keith goes, Lance draws nothing but a blank. So much for sharing and spending time with the guy.

The last half hour the paladins grouped together to try and dig up information on their families. Keith, Lance noticed, stood near the doorway with his arms folded. No family, nothing to search for, Lance supposed. It made sense, but tugged at his heartstrings nonetheless.

* * *

 

It’s two weeks, three group movie nights, and six missions later that Lance is finally able to convince Keith to watch a movie with just him. Keith kept declining and making up excuses from cleaning his bayard to extra training he’d rather do alone. He wasn’t sure being alone with Lance would be the best idea at the moment, even if he had ‘very important’ movies to show him.

“Please please please please please Keith?” Lance is literally begging at this point. He wants to spend some time with the red paladin in which they aren’t training in an attempt to strengthen their relationship, since the rivalry was essentially over now that they’re part of a team. Lance wanted something more.

Keith rolled his eyes, accepting that Lance would likely never stop persisting until he got an agreement. “Fine. I get to pick the first movie, though.”

“Deal. We start after dinner.” With that, Lance disappeared and Keith is left in the training room to work on cardio himself. What a coincidence that Lance ducks out before cardio every session.

As far as movies go, Keith has trouble deciding what he’d want to watch with Lance. He’s the first to admit that his movie repertoire isn’t that big. He’d only really seen a handful compared to the rest of the group and Lance had probably seen the majority of those Keith had gotten from the Scimasses already.

He decides on Donnie Darko. If Lance has seen it before, oh well, it’s worth watching again.

* * *

 

Lance is already in the media room when Keith enters. He’s sitting on the floor, bouncing a rubber ball up and down seemingly endlessly.

Keith watches the act for a minute, marveling at the focus and ability to tune out outside forces that Lance displayed. “Hey,” he finally greeted, startling the other boy, “ready to start?”

The ball bounces off the floor once more after Lance loses focus and launches up, hitting him on the nose and falling back to the ground before bouncing a few more, less violent times.

“ _Dude_!” Lance shouts, hand going up to his nose. “You scared the shit out of me!”

That didn’t help Keith’s plans for the evening. He was aiming for nice and approachable, for once.

“I’m really sorry, Lance.”

“It’s…. Fine.” He hesitates and Keith isn’t sure why. “Anyway, what’s the movie? I’ve been curious all day.”

“Sit down, I’ll start it and see if you recognize it.” Keith gestures to the couch and brings his flash drive to the screen adorning the wall. Plugging it in, he selects the correct file and hits play, going back to the couch himself, a reasonable distance between himself and Lance. For now.

It becomes evident very quickly that Lance had never seen this movie before, but he paid attention with full focus, only breaking it to tap Keith’s arm when he had a guess about what might happen next.

The end boggled his mind.

“Wait, but if that’s the- no that just, it can’t work like that because if that happens-” Lance’s arms fly everywhere as he tries to puzzle out the ending and piece together the movie.

Keith lets himself smile seeing the expressions cross Lance’s mostly-confused face. This was his favorite movie and he was glad to be able to share it with someone he really did want to get to know better.

“Okay, that hurt my brain.” Lance finally stops freaking out. “We’re going to watch something more chill this time. I hope you like cartoons.”

Keith really didn’t have a preference either way with cartoons, but he kept his mind open.

Grabbing Keith’s flash drive from the port and inserting his own, Lance tosses Keith’s onto the table so that he could retrieve it later.

“I present to you, Big Hero 6!” He announces, sitting back down on the couch before shooting back up as if he’d sat on something sharp and saying “Don’t move! And pay close attention! I’ll be right back.”

The movie opens, showing who Keith assumes to be the protagonist in a bot fight, something that had actually fascinated Keith when he was younger and in one of his foster homes. The competitions were of course nothing like the movie portrayed, but it sucked him in nonetheless.

When Lance returns his arms are covered in blankets and pillows. He tosses them on the couch, a pillow landing in Keith’s lap, while the rest stays on Lance’s side.

Keith has to pause the movie while Lance gets comfortable because he was jostling the couch so much.

“We can share, y’know.” Lance invites, lifting up an edge of the blanket.

Despite this being a perfect opportunity to move closer to Lance, Keith’s mind is shouting at him to run. _He doesn’t mean it like that_ , the nagging voice in his head persists, but he perseveres past it, scooting closer to the blue paladin in order to get comfortable under the blanket.

“Better!” Lance announces cheerily, cheeks flushing slightly. “Hit play.”

Keith complies, returning his attention to the movie the best that he can. Watching the protagonists brother die hits a bit too close to home when he imagines the same thing happening to Shiro, the closest person he has to a brother figure.

Sneaking a glance at Lance, he sees that the other boy is fighting to keep his eyes open. Weird. It wasn’t even that late.

Returning attention to the movie, Keith found, was getting difficult. Lance, ever the center of attention, was even more interesting to look at when he’s toned down. It’s endearing, really, seeing this side of him. Keith hoped to see him like this more.

He’s finally in a comfortable position curled up on the couch, arms around Lance’s pillow, back to watching the movie when it happens.

A gentle nudge on his shoulder.

Keith almost shakes it off, figuring Lance was just nudging him in anticipation of a cool scene. Looking over, he’s glad he decided not to, because there’s Lance, out cold on his shoulder. It’s nothing short of adorable.

Keith’s heart swells seeing Lance like this, at peace and comfortable in a place so so far from home. He knows how hard it must be for him to be away from Earth. Despite Keith’s lack of people attaching him to the planet, he admits he misses the environment and familiarity of it himself.

Reaching as far as he can with his trapped arm without jostling Lance too much, he rubs circles on his back. Keith can’t bring himself to keep paying attention to the movie, so he doesn’t. It runs in the background as Keith simply watches over Lance.

The dialogue reaches his ears so he gets the gist of the movie in case Lance quizzes him on it later, but his eyes barely glance back at the screen for the rest of the film.

Once the credits start rolling Keith panics. What now? Surely Lance wouldn’t want to be woken up, but staying here was almost certainly going to be more awkward to explain, wouldn’t it?

Keith worries himself tired and his exhausted brain makes the decision for him.

Murmuring into Lance’s hair, he says “I wish I could let you know how damn cute you are. I’m sorry,” before making the decision to try and situate the both of them on the couch for the night. The others would certainly find them, but what could they do?

“I try for more sexy than cute, but I’ll take it I guess.” A sleep-addled Lance replies and Keith freezes.

“Shit, I, um.” Keith can’t seem to form words or move whatsoever. “I’m sorry I’ll just-”

“No no no no.” Lance drawls, obviously still sleepy. “Stay with me. Here. Please.” He pauses, considering. “You’re cute too. Stay?”

Keith’s already red face gets redder as Lance’s words sink in. When they do, he has a smile on his face, not that Lance can see.

“Then c’mon you big lug, let’s get comfortable.”

“If anything, you’re the bi-” He’s interrupted by what’s probably the biggest yawn he’s ever had. “Whatever. Cradle me in your arms, Keith.”

Keith can’t form the words necessary to respond to that, so he readjusts their position so that Lance’s head is on Keith’s chest as they lay across the entirety of the couch, blankets covering  them.

“Hey, guess what?” Lance asks, and Keith looks down at him fondly, unable to answer because it’s that moment that Lance leans over to kiss him.

It’s quick, a simple goodnight kiss, but still the best kiss Keith has ever had.

Drowsiness and comfort lull the two into an easy slumber, limbs tangled and blanket eventually knocked away.

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from the Donnie Darko quote "And what if you could go back in time and take all those hours of pain and darkness and replace them with something better?"  
> thank you so much for reading! let me know what you think.  
> as usual, you can find me at [staarplatinum](http://staarplatinum.tumblr.com/)


End file.
